Having cravings?
Pick up the phone, click a few buttons and delicious food will arrive at your place.But have you ever imagined a situation where your stomach will rumble with hunger and you won’t have a plate of rice and lentils to eat?
We can never imagine such a situation like, because we always have food ready whenever we want it. But thereis a section of people who cannot afford the cereals to fill their stomach; they live in constant fear of not being able to feed themselves and their family at least twice a day.
Food security is a measure of availability of food and an individual’s ability to access it.The concept of food security is very similar to that of job security, when we say we have job security we mean the surety of our salary being credited on a fixed date. Similarly, food security is an assurance that we are sure from where the next meal is going to come.
Food security and hunger has always been a global issue.
70% of countries have achieved food security in the yesteryears.
Most food secure countries in the world are:
- United states 89.3
- Austria 85.5
- Netherlands 84.4
- Norway 84.4
- Singapore 84.3, etc.
While these countries are overcoming hunger and achieving food security there are countries that are still struggling from hunger and food insecurity.
The least food secure countries are:
- Burundi 28.8
- Madagascar 27.7
- Chad 25.5
- Congo 24.8
Affordability is one of the best ways to see the difference between the most and least secure nations. You will be astonished to know that US, being the country with highest food security,spends just 6.7% of its income on food while the worst performers spend about 50% of their income on food.
Some steps that can be taken to improve food security:
- Food and nutrition:
Major investment is usually focused on the traditional staple crops to fight hunger. But the recent trend is to pay attention to the nutritional balance of the crops cultivated and consumed, also ensuring food security in the country.
Effective use of technology for knowledge communication:
The explosion in mobile technologies can be taken advantage of as it is the most effective method of sharing information. Mobile services can also be expanded to include market information like what to charge per crop and how to access microfinance.
Agriculture needs a landscape approach:
Agriculture plays a huge role in making landscapes profitable. The AIRCA has taken up the responsibility to tackle these problems at landscape level. Creating solutions requiresapproach that takes into account the diversity of interactions of people, environment, etc.
Threat of non-native invasive species:
The biggest threat to biodiversity has been largely positioned from the spread of non-native invasive species. The most obvious and important step is the prevention of arrival of invasive species; it can be controlled by natural biological ways. These species cost the world economy around 1 trillion every year.
Youth is an integral part of the solution for food security and hunger, but majority of youth don’t see agriculture as a promising career path due to low productivity and difficulties they know that the previous generation had to face. In order to provide successful examples and viable livelihoods for all future generations, developing their knowledge and skill set is very essential.
The youth professionals can bring a change and fight hunger, because they have fresh ideas and strong perseverance. And there are several organisations that are prioritizing the youth empowerment and involving the young minds in improving the agriculture sector. Be it research, academic or ground work.
If provided with promising opportunities for the development of knowledge, skills and capacity on the agrarian activities, youth have the power to turn the fate of food security and nutrition to a brighter side.
By Debasnata Nayak
